DAMASCUS, 11 November 2021, (TON): The Kurdish administration in northeastern Syria said that a Turkish drone strike targeting a car in the border city of Qamishli killed three civilians.

The strike, which was carried out “killed three members of a single family”, including an 82-year-old man, a statement released by the autonomous administration said.

Nuri Mahmoud, a spokesman for the Kurdish security forces, named the dead as “national figure Yusuf Kello and his two grandsons Mazloum and Muhammad.”

The spokesman said on Twitter “the treacherous targeting of the patriots of northeastern Syria by the Turkish occupation will not discourage us.”

Turkey, which considers the Kurdish movement that dominates the administration to be a terrorist organisation, has thousands of troops deployed across northern Syria.

The army and its Syrian rebel proxies have seized swathes of territory in successive military operations since 2016, most of them targeting Kurdish forces.

Last month, Erdogan said “Turkey was preparing to step up operations in Syria, where its troops have clashed with Kurdish forces supported by the United States in the fight against the Islamic State group.

Qamishli residents are expected to hold a protest later on Wednesday against the latest drone strike.